When the Winchester's sleep
by Kayxxx
Summary: When the Winchester sleep what does their feathered friend do? Just a fun little oneshot of things I'd like to imagine Cas getting up to while the bros sleep which I wrote while funnily enough not being able to sleep. Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think. Hope you get a better night sleep than me! Disclaimer: unfortunately I do not own any of these wonderful characters.


When the Winchester sleep what does their feathered friend do? He used to visit heaven but not so much anymore. Some nights he chooses to watch over them, especially nights after hunts just in case they missed a monster or two who followed them back for revenge…Dean didn't like that too much though. Some nights he'll sit and flick through the TV, though TV past midnight the shows tended to be pretty crappy he'd learnt over the years. He liked cartoons and cartoons tended not to play past nine for some reason. The youngest of the Winchesters, Sam, introduced him to Netflix which changed some of his nights, that was if he could get a hold of his laptop which was rare considering how much he loved his research. Sometimes he'd read, he had a great attention span and could get through two books a night usually, he'd get through more if the winchesters actually slept for the normal amount of hours most humans do. He'd discovered he was a huge fan of poetry he adored how lyrical the English language could become, it was his favourite all round language of all the human's languages, along with French when spoken, Arabic when written and German when sung. Speaking of music he would spend some of his nights listening to the cassette player that Dean handed down to him, music would forever amaze him, though the humans would like to believe they created it, a lot of them would be surprised to hear that God actually plays the guitar. Although music was around before humans they sure did claim it, go the extra mile and _steal away_, to quote a Led Zeppelin song that Cas had grown to love playing on his favourite cassette that Dean made for him, music was an international language that every human spoke and God, did he love it.

Listening to music wasn't the only thing the angel did as his human friends slept, one time when the Winchester's slept he even tried to cook. Let's just say yes, it is possible to burn pasta; in case you've ever wondered. Sometimes he'll continue with research the brothers fell asleep during to help them out or maybe even go scope out the area of the case himself, keeping himself completely hidden at all times of course. Often he ventures out, he was a huge fan of nature but even more so at night, he loved how the glow from the moon hit the leaves and the grass, he considered it beautiful and it never failed to ground him. The bees slept at night though, as humans do, he'd grown to learn. Owls don't sleep at night, neither do bats or moths, he somehow found comfort in finding fellow winged creatures with no need to sleep at night, however he didn't sleep at all though. Some nights he tries, the bunker has many bedrooms and so sometimes he'll lay in one of the pitch black rooms and close his eyes having seen first hand that this was how his human friends drifted off into their nightly slumber, angel radio made it near impossible to zone out, he even switched it off once...but then the haunting sound of silence seemed to bother him even more. He liked to go into town, just stand back, blend into the background and watch life happen around him where it seemed it never slept, there would always be a bar open, or a strip club which he would avoid heavily, or someone getting up for work or a child crying for attention at night or a dog barking for the same reason but not everyone ever slept at the same time; that he found fascinating.

Sometimes not even the Winchester's slept at the same time, Sam always woke first for a jog or breakfast smoothie whereas the elder brother, Dean, would sleep in snoozing off his booze he downed the night before. He found some could sleep easier than others, some would be out like a light in seconds whereas others it took hours of tossing and turning. He still didn't understand sleep, he realised humans needed to recharge but there was something off putting to him about lying unconscious for hours on end completely oblivious and vulnerable to what's around you yet they do it every single night, he respected it though and always insured the Winchesters got the rest they needed.

Dreams also confused him, most people found peace when it came to sleeping and dreaming, they saw it as an escape from reality for a while. Dean once told him about a dream he had where he was chased through his childhood neighbourhood by a giant bottle of beer until he got to his home and opened the door only to stumble into a pool of beer which he had to drink in order to get out, to this day he says it was his favourite dream but Cas knew it wasn't thought of being chased by a giant bottle of beer that caused Dean to shout in his sleep sometimes or jump awake startled and unable to sleep again; nightmares seemed self-torturous to him, how could the mind allow itself to think of such things? The brain never switches off, of course it can't as without it the humans couldn't live but for it to allow the human to see their biggest fears, or memories they've spent years suppressing while they slept that get so graphic or terrifying that they wake in a cold sweat begging for it to stop seems strange to him, surely the brain and the human should be on the same side of this whole life thing? Over the years he'd noticed Sam tended to have more nightmares than Dean which he only put down to the fact that Dean drank himself unconscious most nights which meant he slept deeper than his younger brother, because Dean definitely came across as the more tortured of the two so logically should have more nightmares, but that meant the nightmares that woke Dean from his boozy snoozing were bad, _real_ bad.

He also noticed they slept differently. Sam was a restless sleeper, he twitched a lot, he mumbled and talked every now and then seeming to always have something on his mind, Cas had learned over the years to be quiet with his movement when Sam slept as his sleep was easily disturbed. Dean was the complete opposite, he was practically comatized when he slept, he lay flat out on his stomach mostly, drooling into his pillow letting out a loud snore from his open mouth, Cas would describe him as an angry sleeper if such a thing existed.

One thing he was sure of was that the nights were lonely, he was used to being alone, as an angel that existed before the birth of man there was a lot of time to be alone with very little to watch over, but now he had the Winchester's, the best company he'd ever had and he'd be lying if he said it saddened him slightly when a yawn would grow on their faces knowing they'd turn in for the night shortly afterwards. Though it was only a few hours it was always just long enough to feel alone. He now _knows what its like to be alone, _to quote another of his favourite Zeppelin classics.

Tonight he chose to watch over Dean. It didn't take long for the older Winchester to wake up startled from a dream instinctively grabbing his gun from underneath his pillow, however, this time calling his angel friend's name which took him by surprise.

"Yes Dean" The angel replied.

"Cas! Cas?" He squinted his eyes trying to focus them in the dark of his bedroom. He was sweating, panting, and clearly terrified of something. There was a figure in front of him but he didn't know whether to shoot it or whether it was his feathered friend.

"I'm here, it's me" Cas reassured him.

"You're okay?" Dean slurred looking towards him still squinting, he was most definitely still 80% asleep, "you're alive, you're okay?" He mumbled in a panic still not seeming to be able to grasp what was reality and what was still his nightmare.

"Yes Dean I-" Cas was cut off.

"You're alive Cas?" Dean asked once more as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, Cas could hear the beat of his racing heart from across the room, hearing humans heartbeats was an angel thing though Dean's was beating so fast Cas was convinced even a human could hear it.

"I am" Castiel told him.

Dean was in disbelief, "They, they got you I saw them, the blood was- there was so much blood I-" He cut himself off as his eyes had now focused in the dark, he looked down at his shaking hands to find they were clean, no blood on them or anywhere else for that matter. He managed to steady his hands and gave the angel a confused glance.

"It was a nightmare Dean" Castiel informed him.

"Right" Dean replied in relief.

"A realistic one, I assume?" Cas asked.

Dean nodded as he leaned back against his headboard, "you have no idea" he shook his head as he ran his hands through his hair and let out a deep breath that he didn't even realise he was holding in.

"I'll get you a glass of water" Cas figured maybe that might steady his nerves. As he wondered to the kitchen he again thought about how insane nightmares could be but he'd be lying if he said it didn't warm his heart slightly to see Dean as shook up about losing him as he would losing the brothers himself. He classed himself as the Winchester's guardian, and he would protect them both to the grave…if only he could protect them from their own minds sometimes. He reappeared in Dean's room with a glass of water in hand to find Dean passed out once again, he seemed to be sleeping more peacefully now. Cas placed the glass on Dean's bedside table and left the room knowing the likelihood of Dean remembering what just happened the next morning when he woke was very slim considering Castiel wasn't even sure if the conversation he'd just had was a conversation with Dean while he was awake or asleep.

He sat down at the kitchen table and pulled out his cassette player; skipped it along to the Led Zeppelin song _'in my time of dying' _and put on his headphones. He decided tonight was a music night, while the Winchester's slept. It wouldn't be long before Sam would be up making breakfast and coffee and asking Cas his opinions on a case. Of all the humans, although they were both incredibly flawed and pretty tortured within themselves, he was glad he chose to be the Winchester's guardians because they saved people and hunted things and decided with their short lives to spend it trying to make the world a better place and that overlooked any flaw the pair ever had. He'd happily wait around a few hours waiting when the Winchester's slept.


End file.
